“We are passing the phur… Føræuorislands…”
– That dude flying the plane
My goddaughter turns 18 this year and my gift was a weekend trip to whatever destination she wanted. She chose Iceland and we spent 1,5 days shopping for vintage clothing and eating rye bread ice cream in Reykjavik, and an 8 hour guided trip around the Golden Circle.
Was it touristy? Of course. But honestly, if you want a lightning fast trip into Icelandic history, to see a Geysir, a waterfall, a national park, the first place the “Allting” got together to figure out how to navigate the politics and stroke three horses with a massive diva complex, it’s a really good choice.
We arrived quite late because the plane tickets were either very expensive or incredibly early (I wasn’t keen on a plane taking off around 4am). But we found Sumac Restaurant in Reykjavik, easily the best place we ate the whole trip. The grilled lamb ribs were absolutely divine…
After checking out a few souvenir shops (because they are insanely numerous in Reykjavik’s small centre) we headed for out hotel to rest up an prepare for the next day’s big trip.
GOLDEN CIRCLE TOUR
The whole trip took 8 hours and we were in the charge of a lovely and super funny tour guide named Thor because of course he was.
Thor the Allknowing
First stop was the Kerid Crater an inactive volcanic crater. It’s safe though, the last eruption was between 3,000 – 6,500 years ago, and no volcanic activity has been recorded since. It sits within Iceland’s Western Volcanic Zone, but poses no danger to visitors. It’s an oval basin about 55 m deep, featuring iron-rich red volcanic stone and an aquamarine lake at the bottom and it was quite beautiful. You can walk all the way around it and take the trail down to the bottom. Thor told us that they had concerts down there back in the day, but apparently that doesn’t happen anymore. Such a shame, imagine seeing ACDC down there. Angus Young stripping down to his boxers on a floating stage over an inactive volcano… Epic sh*t. As it was we managed to enjoy the views without ACDC’s presence. (Still never figured out what the white thing at the bottom of the lake was though…)
GULLFOSS
Tourist: “Is it the biggest one?”
Thor: “God no! Hahaha! But it is one of the prettiest ones.”
Gullfoss has a bit of a story. It spawned the “first environmentalist in Iceland” in a woman named Sigríður Tómasdóttir/ Sigridur i Brattholti (1871–1957). She caught wind of her beloved Gullfoss being sold for development and “progress” (yeah…) and she went quite ballistic. She had spent a lot of her time taking people visiting to see this marvel of nature and would have none of it. Long story short she trekked to Reykjavik repeatedly to petition for the landscape staying a landscape and ultimately threatened to throw herself off the waterfall if the deals went through. She didn’t quite succeed through law, but garnered so much attention and support that in the end the governmental contracts were cancelled and the planned hydroelectric project was never constructed. Gullfoss and the surrounding area was eventually sold to the Icelandic government and was made a permanent conservation site in 1979. There is a monument erected in her honour close to the pathway down to the waterfall and Thor mentioned something about the ravine being named after her too, but I can’t remember the details on this.
The name “Gullfoss” translates to “Golden Falls,” for the waterfall’s stunning appearance when the sun is out. The mist from the falls often forms rainbows, adding an extra touch of magic to the scene. Unfortunately, the weather was not in our favour on our trip, it was very overcast, but the falls were still beautiful. Well worth the trip.
STROKKUR GEYSIR – The “Butter Churn”
It’s not the biggest or tallest, but The Strokkur Geysir erupts every 4-10 minutes so it’s a safe bet if you really want to see one go off. We walked around it, saw it go off and got a cool video, walked up the hill to a higher vantage point, waited and got a cool video, Jorild crouched down to get flowers in front of the geysir going off and got a really cool video… You get the gist 😉
Thingvellir National Park
Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park in Iceland is celebrated as the birthplace of democracy because it is the historic site of the Althing, Lögberg (Law Rock), and the Lögrétta (Law Council). Established in 930 AD, this open-air assembly served as the annual gathering place where early Icelandic settlers made laws and solved disputes, forming one of the world’s oldest parliamentary institutions. I wondered why there was a random flag pole with the Icelandic flag placed in the middle of nowhere in a small “canyon”… Then I facepalmed when I realized it was because that’s the exact spot of the “birthplace of democracy”.
There are a lot of places, not only in the Western world, that can claim to be the “birthplace of democracy”, but I would agree this is one of them (getting a bit tired of the whitewashing of global history). Again, beautiful landscape and the walk through the canyon was like being in an episode of The Vikings.
Thor the Allknowing knows how to please tourists because he dropped us off by the gift ship and start of the canyon (very small canyon, but I’m calling it a canyon), drove around the whole thing and waited for us at the end of the trail so we didn’t have to walk all the way back up to get on the minibus. Which of course also gave us a lot more time to explore. Highly approved.
Panoramic views at the start
- Founded in 930 AD by Viking settlers and chieftains.
- Acted as a national parliament where free men met every summer.
- Handled major laws, alliances, and legal disputes for the commonwealth.
- Continued meeting at this outdoor site until 1798.
- A natural rocky outcrop functioning as the speaker’s podium.
- The Law Speaker stood here to recite the tribal laws aloud from memory.
- Proclaimed rulings, announcements, and procedural rules to the gathered crowds.
“Þingvallakirkja (the Þingvellir Church) and its adjacent national cemetery are historic landmarks located in Þingvellir National Park in southwestern Iceland, roughly a one-hour drive northeast of Reykjavík. The site features a wooden church built in 1859 and a modest, sacred burial ground holding notable Icelandic figures. The church also holds four identical houses next to it and as far as I could discern online these function as the summer residence for the prime minister or sommething”. These houses are pretty famously know and the gift shop held a lot of fridge magnets and knick knacks showing them. I opted out of buying that and almost went for a litography, but in the end we bought nothing here. (Made up for that later though, no worries).
After arriving back at Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik we got a photo of Thor, gave him a tip for the marvellous service and headed off to any Italian restaurant we could find. We craved pasta.
Ending up at “Rossopomodoro” we had some really good lasagna, but sub par apple cake with ice cream (almost burnt on the top layer, actually). So Sumac still #1, bebbeh!
The day after was the day of our departure, but our bus didn’t leave until 3pm so we thought we’d get some breakfast at the hotel since it was included, go look for vintage shops and souvenirs and try the ice cream Thor was raving about. We promptly overslept, were in bed until 10am, left our suitcases at the hotel and carried on with -most- of the plan. We ended up buying a salmon bagel that came with salty crisps we didn’t know about beforehand. What a bonus(!) Then we saw a cat called “Negull” (meaning cloves) who lived in a shop and slept in the windowsill. He grew tired of us fawning over him through the glass so he immediately moved on to a sheepskin further in the shop where he could sleep in peace 😛
Negull
We went to Loki Cafe for the Rye Bread ice cream, which was spectacular, almost a new #1 (Sumac still though! No chance!) and Jorild found some items she really liked. I bought a print of a puffin with his beak full of fish that somehow still managed to look sad. Perfection.
Obviously we had to go by the Little Christmas Shop in Reykjavik even though I bought a bauble during our tour with Thor. I got a small house for my Christmas Town display ❤ We went by a wonderful, whimsical garden we grabbed some photos of and got someone to take a picture of us by the enormous Puffin “teddy” down the street.
It was such a good trip, only made better by the fact that Fredrik picked us up at the airport and I got a lift back home so I didn’t have to arrive at like 3am ❤ ❤
LAST PHOTOS
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